THE GREAT TEMPLE OF AMUN AT KARNAK is in a word, Amazing! At over 200 acres it is also one of the largest. I should also note that Karnak with two “K”s has nothing to do with the Johnny Carson character, two “C” Carnac the Magnificent. And while I don't remember it, you may recall the counterfeit 007, Roger Moore, in Hypostyle Hall in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Bond, James Bond
By the time we walked the 2+ miles from our hotel on Saturday morning the tour groups had started to arrive. With its ten pylons—Luxor has a single monumental gate—Karnak is large enough that could always escape the crowds.
Karnak, Bigger than we remembered but just as good
Entry to Karnak, first Pylon of Ten
Originally a canal from the Nile lead to the Avenue of the Sphinxes and the First Pylon where we entered with everyone else. But after crossing the courtyard with more sphinxes and statues of Ramses II as Osiris we veered away from the main complex and the crowds.
John and the Ram-head Sphinxes
Ramses II as Osiris
Archeology is on-going in Karnak. The Ninth Pylon is being rebuilt and a monumental statue—Ramses, perhaps—is being erected near the Seventh Pylon. We like to imagine what it would have looked like 4000 years ago as we compare what we remember from 2006 with what we are seeing now and what it will look like in the future.
On-going work on Ninth Pylon
Reflections of Karnak
Even with the tourist police giving him the eye as he skirted the barrier ropes, John couldn’t resist photographing the listening obelisks reflecting off the Sacred Lake. We began to encounter more and more people as we worked our way back towards the main complex.
The Great Hypostyle Hall
Great Hypostyle Hall
The pièce de résitance of Karnak is the Great Hypostyle Hall. And great it is—134 fat columns in an area larger than Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral. The two center rows of six columns tower 70-feet while the others are “only” forty-feet high. Most are covered in reliefs about the reign of Seti I. To our eyes it was again the pristine colors on the columns. You don’t need to understand the stories to appreciate something so ancient.
You can trust him!
No matter what Carnac the Magnificent’s question, the answer is “Don’t miss Karnak.”
